The Rays announced more details about the renovations to The Trop that are currently underway.

The biggest changes will be opening up the batter’s eye restaurant into a patio bar area that overlooks center field (see right). There will also be a deck area over the rays tank. Also, several rows of seats have been removed from the outfield bleachers to produce a walkway circling the field that allows fans to continue watching the game as they move around.

You can see more renderings below.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

Jose Lobaton is still with the Rays for now. Marc Topkin says Lobatron “could be going to the White Sox.” [Marc Topkin]

Ken Rosenthal explains why the Rays would want Heath Bell despite his struggles on the field as well as with teammates and fans in Arizona. [Fox Sports]

The Yankees gave Jacoby Ellsbury a $153 million contract which is a bad sign for the Rays and the rest of the AL East. Maybe the Yankees overpaid. But more importantly, it means the Yankees may be back to being the Yankees. [BI Sports]

Scott Kazmir went from pitching in an independent league to signing a 2-year, $22 million contract with the A’s. [Jim Bowden]

Kelly Johnson is set to sign a 1-year contract with the Yankees for about $3 million. [Joel Sherman]

Phil: Your comment gets at something that I've never understood. Look at those catwalks in the renderings -- it seems to me the catwalks could be improved by making the walkways retractable or otherwise minimizing the profile on the catwalks to decrease the change of a ball hitting something when on the rare occasion a ball in hit up there. I think the base support by the rings doesn't need a walkway, for example.

In my view, the management have always played with the silly ground rule and the catwalks as is because they want to deem the stadium unfit, and as a baseball stadium, that is the only thing that is unfit about it. (Putting aside fan amenities, sightllines, location etc.)